Irish indie rock bands like Fontaine DC and Silverbacks headline IRC’s first bi-monthly best new singles report of 2022.
We also just posted our Best Songs of 2021 – 125 amazing tracks from the best indie and non-indie albums of the year (and it was a blockbuster year for albums!). Plus, new music from Pavement, Spiritualized and Holodrum.
In This Installment:
– Fontaines DC
– Silverbacks
– Pavement
– Spiritualized
– Holodrum
STREAM IRC’s 2022 SONGS PLAYLIST
Stream all the best New 2022 Songs as they are released via our Spotify Best Songs of 2022 playlist
Fontaines DC target ‘skinty fia’ meaning
Dublin indie rockers Fontaines DC just announced a new album Skinty Fia for release this spring. The first new single from the band’s forthcoming third album is the driving first single “Jackie Down The Line”.
There’s confusion about the title of the album swirling around. Basically ‘skinty fia’ is an expletive, but historically it’s an Irish phrase that translates to ‘the damnation of the deer.’ Over time, the original meaning has been Anglicized and diluted.
The band have also announced a North American tour for this spring along with fellow Irish band Just Mustard.
Fontaines DC is one of the hottest Irish indie rock bands of the past half decade. The band members are Grian Chatten, Carlos O’Connell, Conor Curley, Conor Deegan III, and Tom Coll.
Silverbacks start ’22 wih latest single from Archive Material
Irish indie band Silverbacks kick off 2022 with the fourth single, “A Job Worth Something”, from the Archive Material album due out later this month.
“A Job Worth Something” is latest single drop and their first new material of the year. The previous three singles dropped include “Rolodex City”, “Archive Material” and “Wear My Medals”.
“For most of the pandemic I lived with my sister who is a healthcare worker and was working in the designated Covid hospital in St James’ Dublin,” says frontman Daniel O’Kelly. “Unfortunately, I was far less heroic, writing copy for a car insurance company.”
“This song is about feeling embarrassed about how different our lives were at this time,” O’Kelly adds. “When it comes to telling my grandchildren what all this was like, I’ll be telling them about my sisters who have more important stories to share.”
Archive Material drops officially on January 21 .
Pavement drops ‘new’ single from massive Terror Twilight re-issue
As one of the clear purveyors of the indie/alt rock sound slack rockers Pavement will drop a deluxe reissue of Terror Twilight in February with three previously unreleased songs. Here is one of them: “Be The Hook”. Thoughts?
Matador Records will release the reissue on April 8th. According to the label, the reissue will reincarnate producer Nigel Goodrich‘s (Beck, Radiohead) original track listing suggestion along with Pavement’s final track order.
The four LP/2-CD editions will also include a book featuring previously unreleased photos and notes. Obviously, a must-have for die-hard Pavement fans.
The reissue includes a stunning 45 tracks and a remastering of the original album, as well as B-sides, rehearsal tapes, live recordings, home demos, rehearsal tapes, live recordings and sessions – such as recordings from a scrapped session at Sonic Youth’s Echo Canyon studio. In all, the compilation offers 28 unreleased tracks, including “Be The Hook.”
The LP will restore Terror‘s producer Nigel Goodrich (Radiohead, Beck) suggested sequence, yet the new CD will preserve the final track order lined up by Pavement.
U.K. indie trailblazers Spiritutalized drop second single
Ahead of the release of their forthcoming new album, long-time English space rockers Spiritualized unveiled a video for the fresh single, “Crazy.”
The single follows the release of the first single, and opener, “Always Together With You” from the upcoming album release, Everything Was Beautiful, set to drop February 25 on Fat Possum.
For 30 years, Spiritualized, easily one of the U.K.’s first popular ‘indie’ bands, has remained innovative and relevant. The new country-soul single features backing vocals from Nikki Lane. Directing the video – and inspired by Andy Warhol’s 60’s silent film, Kiss – frontman Jason Pierce, a.k.a., J Spaceman.
Speaking of ‘crazy’, the album was recorded in 11 different studios over a couple of years. Pierce plays 16 different instruments on the album with help from some 30 invited musicians, including choirs, chimes, brass and string section and finger bells.
“I felt like I’d been in training for this my whole life,” Pierce said in a statement. “There was so much information on it that the slightest move would unbalance it, but going around in circles is important to me.
“Not like you’re spiraling out of control but you’re going around and around and on each revolution you hold onto the good each time. Sure, you get mistakes as well, but you hold on to some of those too and that’s how you kind of… achieve. Well, you get there.”
Holodrum drops debut single “Free Advice”
Shimmering with disco-like electro-pop, U.K. supergroup Holodrum has drop the debut single, “Free Advice”. The track is layered and complex and atmospheric.
“When it comes to doing music, most bands fall between two extremes of doing it for some goal or as an end to itself,” says guitarist/vocalist Sam Shjipstone. “I think Holodrum is about the joy and complexity of living, and I just hope to god everyone gets to have a good time doing it.”
“[Free Advice] expresses the state of feeling invincible in the face of adversity,” says lead vocalist Emily Garner, “and acts quite explicitly as a piece of good advice, applicable to anyone that’s gone out of their way just to harsh your vibe.”
The accompanying video is steep deep in technicolour with 8-bit animation. “[It] mostly includes things we miss and love about being in a band. Namely jamming, travelling, seeing stuff and enjoying the local delicacies. Iced in a candy-core palette, the video art is a motion collage of 2D, 2.5D and isometric 3D graphics.” shares the group.
“Free Advice” is out now and the debut album drops February 25.
